Things Change
by UnknownTitans
Summary: A longtime friendship has bloomed into something more. Unfortunately for Robin and Starfire neither of them can fully explain the "more" part. - Set in Tokyo


The last few hours since we arrived back at the hotel had been a swirling storm of emotions and uncertainty, a mixture of hope but also of worry. Nervousness flooded through me as I paced back and forth in my small room. The events of the night spun inside my head, my entire life had changed in the course of a few hours and it would surely never be the same again. I had gone from just being a leader to now adding the weight of the "boyfriend" title to the already heavy load on my shoulders.

The frustration of the night had almost given me a breakdown. Starfire's request for a relationship scared me more than anything, I have always liked her but I guess I just never planned for the outcome of her liking me back. So when she went ahead and told me I had to be an idiot and try to deny it, using some stupid reasons as an excuse for myself not to be happy. Watching her fly away in tears was one of the worst pains I have ever felt in my life, I hated myself for doing that to her. I can't believe I still allow Bruce's teachings control my life even after years apart. Then I finally came to my senses a few hours later and realised how stupid I was being but of course my moment would be ruined by the rest of the team, there are times I want to throttle Beast Boy and that was one of those times. But then finally all that frustration and tension melted away and I finally allowed myself to embrace all of the feelings I had been keeping bottled up.

However, now comes the tricky part, actually going forwards with this relationship. We had all been exhausted after the fight against Daizo and so we all headed back to the hotel. I had held Starfire's hand all the way back to her room which made our relationship seem easy to clarify now but it was like the second I let go of her hand, I began to doubt myself again. All of my inhibitions came flooding back and now I am continuing to pace the carpeted floor.

I stroll over to my mirror and examine myself in it, I am sure I'm probably the only person still awake at 3am. Especially considering the fact I am staying up pointlessly worrying myself. I smirk to myself as I think of the silliness of it all as I unclip my cape and head over to the window to close the blinds. As my attention focuses on the window I freeze for a second, a trail of red sweeps past my window at a record pace accompanied by a faint sound. My curiosity peaks and I rush over to my window and open it quickly. I scan the view and am about to relinquish my search, when I follow the sound of slight scraping and find my eyes landing on the red-headed alien as she presses her back firmly to the wall and attempts to act nonchalantly. "Starfire?" I ask in utter confusion "Why are you outside my window?"

She smiles sheepishly "Oh…umm…I was merely…admiring" she looks around nervously as she tries to think of something "…the nightlife of the city!"

I raise my eyebrow at her "At 3am?"

"Yes! The city is most beautiful at this time" She replies, the same sheepish tone in her voice

I just raise my eyebrow and smile slightly, she's so cute when she gets flustered like this

She sighs heavily "In truth, I was coming over to see if you wished to do the chatting" she looked down at her hands which she continued to mess with "however, I lost the nerve to ask you"

I give her a warm smile and step aside from the window "You can come in if you want, Star?"

She gives me an anxious smile "Thank you", before strolling over to sit on the edge of bed. She quickly begins fidgeting with her hands.

"Is there something on your mind, Star?" It was almost a rhetorical question, I can take a pretty good guess at what was on her mind

She looked up at me and smiles slightly, "It is just, we did not have much time to do the talking whilst we have been here"

"Yeah, especially when Beast Boy feels the need to keep interrupting us"

"He did seem to have the bad timing" she replies with a giggle

Her laughter makes me smile and I stretched my hand across to hers and interlock our fingers, "What did you want to talk about?"

She blushes as she notices our connected hands, "I am confused as to how we should proceed with our relationship"

I felt a pit in my stomach, "What do you mean?"

"What is the escalation from the handholding and the kissing?" she asked nervously, "relationships on Earth and Tamaran are quite drastically different. On Tamaran it is not uncommon for couples to be betrothed in the same year of their meeting"

My eyes widened slightly, "Woah…I don't think we need to talk about marriage for a long time Star"

She nodded in understanding, "Then what is the common pace for human relationships? I have heard that some people engage in sexual actions after the first date"

I turned to face her and he took her other hand in mine, "There doesn't have to be any set pace for us Starfire. It can go as slow as you want it to" I replied "I think holding hands and kissing is enough for the mean time, we can move on to other things when we are both ready" I finished with a smirk.

She smiled brightly at me, "Is our type of relationship a common thing on Earth?"

I gave a small nod, "A lot of couples start as friends before they get together. They usually don't take as long as I did to share their feelings. Sorry about that" I finished with a nervous chuckle

"I was willing to wait for you" she replied happily

That got my interest, "How long have you been waiting for?"

"Since my sister first arrived" she replied matter-of-factly, "In honesty I have felt things for you since our first meeting, however I did not understand those feelings until then"

The fact that she had waited over 2 years for me made me both happy and sad, "I'm sorry I was too stupid to notice"

She began to stroke the back of my hand with her thumb, "I believe that I always knew you felt something for me, I just wished to hear you admit it yourself. I was willing to wait as long as that would take"

I put my arm around her waist and slid her to me, I placed my lips gently against hers and I smiled as she began to reciprocate the affection. After a few moments I pulled back and I marvelled at the glistening emerald pools that looked back at me. "You're so beautiful, Star. It makes me happy I can tell you now" I said bashfully.

Her cheeks burned brightly and her smile was radiant, "I find you most appealing as well, Robin"

"I want to know you better Star, and I want my girlfriend to know more about me. What's your real name?"

She looked confused "My name is Starfire?"

"When we first met you told me that Starfire was the English translation for your name" I elaborated

"Oh" she replied in understanding, "on Tamaran my name would be Koriand'r"

I ran the name over and over in my head, it was a wonderful name but I couldn't help but chuckle "You mean like the spice?"

She giggled "Yes, coincidentally it is the same pronunciation of the herb on this planet. However it is spelled with a 'K' and is missing the 'e'"

"Do you not have a second name?"

She pondered for a moment, "On Tamaran you could say we have a joint name. 'And'r' would be my second name on this planet"

"Kori I repeated to her, a beautiful name for a beautiful princess", I applauded myself internally for my confidence this evening. Before tonight I would have been a stammering mess. "It's only fair, you get to hear mine now"

She titled her head quizzically, "I believed that Robin was your actual name"

I laughed, "No, Robin is a nickname I picked when I was younger, a hero identity to work with Batman. My mom used to call me 'her little Robin' and after they died I took the name. My real name is Richard, Richard John Grayson"

Her face lit up brightly, "Richard, what a wonderful name!" she repeated it to herself a few times quietly and the smile never left her face. "May I call you this?"

The proposition sounded bizarre in my mind, Robin had been my name for so many years now that it felt strange hearing anything else. I looked at her excited smile and I melted, I peeled the mask from my face and grinned at her, "I would love it if you did" Within seconds she leapt forwards into my lap and knocked me onto my back as she kissed me hard on the lips. "Woah, what was that for?" I said with a startled chuckle.

"For granting me such a prestigious honour" she answered warmly, she rolled off of me and onto the spot beside me but her eyes seemed transfixed to my face. "Your eyes are wondrous, Richard. They are like small sapphires"

"Mine don't shoot laser beams out of them" I replied with a smirk

She giggled gleefully and shifted her body so that it was closer to mine and let out an adorable little yawn, "Would cuddling be an acceptable action?" she asked with a small sly smile.

I grinned back at her "I think we can add that to the list", looping my arms around her I pulled her closer and closed my eyes.

It would be interesting explaining why Starfire would be leaving my room in the morning

 **The End**

* * *

 **Author's Notes:**

 **Sorry it's took so long for me to write anything, I had a severe case of writers block and I really didn't want to try and force myself to write something when I knew it wouldn't be very good.**

 **Also to the guests that we're spam posting reviews on my last story. Please don't do that, I really appreciate that you want to see more stories but I get an email each time you post and it was flooding my emails, I don't ignore any reviews and will always read them as they come in. It would be much more helpful to me if you were to tell me what you liked/disliked about the story. If you would like to get in touch with me to find out on progress then message me on Tumblr or make an account here and private message me.**


End file.
